The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

While we’ve heard enough bad things about Worst Company In America finalist Bank of America to fill some kind of super ginormous complaint bucket, it’s never surprising to hear that they continue to not learn from their mistakes and treat customers like poo. A U.S. Army Reservist who was stationed in Afghanistan says BofA is shirking any responsibility for $25,000 stolen from him while he was on “R & R” in Greece.

WKTV.com in Utica, N.Y. says John has been protesting outside his local Bank of America branch with a sign saying, “A soldier that puts America first should have a bank that puts the soldier first.”

He says he had two weeks off while serving in Afghanistan in 2010, so he headed to Athens, Greece. While he was there, he had a few drinks at a nightclub and charged them to his BofA debit card. When he got back to base and checked his account online, he found six charges deducted for a total of $25,243.71 — all at the nightclub he’d frequented for a few drinks.

He says he wrote to BofA to protest the charges, as it wasn’t his signature on those receipts. He says “they investigated and investigated and here we are a year and a half later and they say they aren’t responsible for this at all.”

BofA issued a statement to the news station, with a media relations coordinator saying:

“I can’t discuss Mr. McDevitt’s account due to customer privacy concerns. However, I can tell you that with any fraud claim, there is a very thorough review process we go through to verify its authenticity.”

John says the saddest part of the whole debacle is that he had been saving the money for his daughter’s wedding.

BofA has issued a final letter on the matter to John, putting the onus of recovering the money all on him: “After further examination of the facts of the case, our decision regarding your claim stands firm and no credits will be issued to your account for these charges.”